ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, Final: Australia vs India – Statistical Preview

The Women’s T20 World Cup comes down to the final where the hosts Australia Women takes on India Women at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The defending champions Australia faced India in the opening match of the tournament which they lost by quite a big margin.

The kept their title defence alive after defeating South Africa Women in semi-final during a thriller. India were a bit lucky in getting through the semi-final against England Women but got the reward of being the only side to win all the group stage matches.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the final between Australia Women and India Women:

0/4 – India Women have not won any knockout match in International cricket since defeating Australia Women in the 2017 Women’s CWC semis. They lost to England in the final of that tournament by 9 runs and suffered an 8-wicket loss to England in the semis of the Women’s T20 World Cup. They lost the Women’s T20I Asia Cup final in 2018 against Bangladesh and the Tri-Nation T20I series final earlier this year against Australia.

1 – India Women has qualified to the final of Women’s T20 World Cup for the first time. On the other hand, Australia has qualified to the final of the Women’s T20 CWC for the 6th time in a row.

1 – Only once India Women featured in an International match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. India faced the home team in a T20I in 2016 which they won by 10 wickets in a rain-affected game.

1 – Harmanpreet Kaur will be celebrating her 31st birthday on Sunday. It will be the first-ever instance of a captain leading his/her team on birthday in any ICC World event final [ODI/T20I/U19 CWCs, Champions Trophy].

2-2 – Australia has a head to head record of 2-2 against India in the Women’s T20 World Cups. However, India’s both wins against Australia in the tournament history came across the last two meetings.

6-2 – Australia Women have a win-loss record of 6-2 in the tournament finals of the T20I format. They lost the 2011 NatWest T20I Tri-series final against England by 16 runs and the 2016 Women’s WT20 final against West Indies by 8 wickets. They won 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2018 editions of the Women’s WT20 and also the T20I Tri-series involving India and England in 2018 and 2020.

9 – Shafali Verma’s 9 sixes in this tournament are the most by any player. These are also the joint 2nd most number of sixes by any player in an edition of Women’s T20 World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur hit as many as 13 sixes in 2018 edition while Deandra Dottin also struck nine maximums in 2010.

9 – Poonam Yadav and Megan Schutt are leading wicket-takers of the tournament with nine wickets apiece. The nine wickets by Poonam are the joint-most wickets for an Indian in an edition of Women’s T20 World Cup.

23 – Radha Yadav has claimed at least one wicket in each of her last 23 T20I matches. This is the joint-longest streak for any player across Men’s and Women’s cricket in the T20I format. Megan Schutt also had a streak of 23 matches which ended in this tournament’s opening game. Radha is also two wickets away from becoming the youngest player and the 5th Indian to bag 50 wickets in Women’s T20I cricket.

1985 – Alyssa Healy needs 15 more runs for becoming the 2nd Australian after Meg Lanning to complete 2000 runs in T20I cricket. Healy will also be only the 11th Woman to complete 2000 T20I runs when she scores those 33 runs.